booktalesy Chapter 268 You're Famous Too
Chapter 268 You're Famous Too
Chapter 268 You're Famous Too (5000)
Lu Yuan didn't answer, but instead drove the copper needle in hard.
The moment the needle pierced the crack in the brick, a muffled thud came from beneath the ground, as if something had been pinned down by the needle.
"I see."
Lu Yuan's eyes grew even colder: "The altar isn't independent; it's absorbing energy by leveraging the earth's vein eye."
"By placing it here, you're using the entire cellar as an eye socket."
Iron Abacus's lips turned white, and after a long while, he managed to squeeze out, "This wasn't my idea."
"I am merely the one who guards the altar."
Lu Yuan looked up at him: "The guardian of the altar?"
"After guarding until the very end, when you're practically a sacrifice yourself, you still call it just guarding?"
When Tie Suanpan was asked this question, he was speechless for a moment.
At this moment, laughter suddenly rose again from the black jar, but it was closer than before, as if it were coming out from the seam of the yellow cloth, close to a person's ear.
The laughter rolled softly, and the round mirrors in the four corners of the empty room simultaneously reflected the same image.
not human.
It is an extremely large eye.
The whites of his eyes were grayish-yellow, the center of his pupils was black, and deep within his pupils were countless tiny human figures layered upon each other.
It's like someone standing at the edge of a deep well looking down, while the bottom of the well is also looking at him.
Zhou Heng, who was closest, gasped sharply and almost lost his balance.
"Don't look in the mirror!"
Lu Yuan interrupted with a shout.
But it was already a fraction of a second too late.
Zhou Heng caught a glimpse of it in that instant, and his whole body froze, his eyes staring blankly, as if his soul had been gently hooked by something.
Seeing this, Song Qinghe became anxious and reached out to help.
Lu Yuan immediately shouted, "Don't touch him!"
"He's been tricked by the mirror; whoever touches him will be infected!"
Wang Cheng'an reacted the fastest, immediately pulling out a piece of red paper from his pocket, crumpling it into a ball, and stuffing it to Zhou Heng's mouth, whispering urgently, "Bite it down, don't answer!"
Xu Erxiao immediately freed one hand, pulled out a thin hemp rope from his waist, quickly wrapped it around Zhou Heng's wrist, and gently tied a slipknot.
"Brother Lu, is this alright?"
Lu Yuan glanced at it and immediately said, "It can hold on a little longer."
""
"Don't let him watch it again yet."
Wang Chengan and Xu Erxiao did it quickly and steadily.
Lu Yuan stopped being distracted, and with a backhand tug on the end of the copper needle, he drove the needle in half an inch further.
With that nail being driven in, the commotion inside the black jar suddenly intensified.
The yellow cloth suddenly bulged out of the mouth of the jar, and then slowly sank inward.
It looked like something inside had its eyes open, and was pushing out a face shape with a cloth.
Lu Yuan gritted his teeth, looked up at Tie Suanpan and said, "If you don't explain yourself clearly, the first thing to come out of this jar won't be a god, but something you yourselves have raised."
Iron Abacus's face turned deathly pale. Finally, as if driven to the brink, he swallowed hard, his voice as dry as sandpaper: "They weren't raised by us."
"It was it that chose this place."
"First come the eyes, then the people offer sacrifices."
"At first, it only looked at the mountains, the roads, and whether people were taking the right path."
"Later, it wanted to eat eyes."
"Later on, it wanted to borrow human eyes to see a farther road."
Lu Yuan frowned upon hearing this.
"Borrowing eyes to see the road?"
Tie Suanpan nodded with difficulty: "Yes."
"The more it looks, the faster that thing down there wakes up."
"Once it truly opens the door, everyone in the mountains whose name it has called will have to find their way for it."
Lu Yuan's eyes sharpened: "Those who were called out?"
"Who called the roll?"
Just as Tie Suanpan was about to speak, the thin face inside the jar suddenly bulged again, and then a hand suddenly stretched out from under the yellow cloth at the mouth of the jar.
This time it wasn't just pale fingers, but the entire palm.
The palm was slender with slightly bent fingers, and there was a crack in the palm, like a half-open mouth.
It grabbed the edge of the altar in an instant.
Then, the pair of "eyes" in the forum lit up completely.
As soon as those "eyes" lit up, Lu Yuan felt as if everything around him had been suddenly lifted up by something invisible.
It's not wind, it's not air, it's "seeing".
That thing is looking at people.
Moreover, it wasn't viewed from inside the altar, but from a deeper, emptier, and darker place.
He treated everyone in the room as living beings placed on a table, scanning them inch by inch.
Wang Chengan was the first to sense something was wrong. His body swayed, as if someone had gently pricked the back of his neck with a thin needle, and his back immediately tensed up.
He forced himself not to turn around, only muttering under his breath, "That eye is truly malevolent."
Xu Erxiao felt his scalp tingle from that gaze, and his right hand could barely hold the ceramic basin.
Fortunately, Lu Yuan had given him strict instructions beforehand, and he gritted his teeth and held the edge of the basin firmly to prevent the steam in the basin from rushing back.
Song Qinghe's face was the palest, but she didn't panic.
She knew that if she panicked at this moment, or if the light shifted, the whole situation would be easily exploited by that "eye" following the flame.
She simply moved the oil lamp forward another half inch, and the flame flickered even more violently, but it still didn't go out.
Lin Zhaoxuan stared at the hand on the side of the altar, his eyes icy cold: "It's about to leave the altar."
17
Lu Yuandao: "We're still half a step away."
As he spoke, the black thread in his hand, with the copper coin tied to it, tautened.
The other end of the black line was embedded in the crack in the ground, pressing down on the earth's vein.
As long as this breath remains intact, even if that thing in the jar stretches out its hand, it won't truly cross the threshold.
But Lu Yuan knew that the evil thing was best at forcing people to make a mistake when they were "just a step away".
So he decided to strike first.
"Cheng'an, pinch the end of the red string on the left."
"Second Brother, sprinkle salt, and go around the bottom of the jar once."
"Zhou Heng, wake up! Lower your head and bite your tongue so you don't respond!"
Zhou Heng was still feeling dizzy as Wang Cheng'an stuffed red paper into his mouth.
Hearing Lu Yuan's shout, he actually bit his tongue hard. The taste of blood rushed through his mouth, and his eyes finally came back to normal.
Wang Chengan moved extremely quickly, stood up, grabbed the remaining red rope on the left side, twisted his wrist, and snapped the end of the rope.
Taking advantage of the break, Xu Erxiao scattered the remaining coarse salt from his pocket, scattering it in a circle along the bottom of the jar.
As soon as the salt hit the ground, wisps of white smoke immediately rose from beneath the black jar, as if something had been scalded.
The hand inside the jar suddenly retracted, and a little blackish-red liquid seeped out from the crack in its palm.
Upon seeing this, Tie Suanpan's expression changed drastically, and he exclaimed, "Oh no! Once the eyes see blood, they'll recognize a living person!"
Lu Yuan's eyes turned cold: "Whom do you recognize?"
Tie Suanpan practically spat out two words through gritted teeth: "Those who are close at hand."
Lu Yuan instantly understood that as long as the Black-Eyed Seed saw blood, it would choose the first living person in the arena to confront it.
Borrow that person's eyes to complete the final step of opening one's eyes.
At this moment, the person closest to the altar was none other than Tie Suanpan himself.
Tie Suanpan realized this as well, and felt as if he had been doused with ice water, and suddenly retreated.
No matter how quickly he retreated, those eyes that seemed to have grown from the jar still slowly turned towards him.
Tie Suanpan's voice changed: "Don't look at me!"
Don't look at me!
"I'm not just here to provide visual aids!"
"I'm not!"
But those two black dots had already frozen in place.
Lu Yuan immediately sensed something was wrong and shouted sharply, "Lin Zhaoxuan, hold him down by the shoulder!"
Without the slightest hesitation, Lin Zhaoxuan stepped forward, grabbed Tie Suanpan by the shoulder, and forcefully pushed him back, severing their eye contact.
Almost at the same instant, a piercing screech suddenly erupted from inside the jar.
That wasn't a human voice anymore; it sounded more like a membrane that had been ripped apart screaming.
The yellow cloth on the surface of the black jar suddenly bulged up in an arc, and then a whole gray-white human face slowly emerged from under the cloth.
The features were blurry, but one could tell that the face was extremely thin, and the area around the eyes had become two deep holes.
Light was rolling in the hole, as if something alive might emerge from it at any moment.
"Shhh the light!"
Lu Yuan shouted.
Song Qinghe gritted her teeth and suddenly lowered the oil lamp by half an inch, the light illuminating his face.
When the firelight shone on that face, it seemed to come alive, and the corners of its mouth suddenly turned upwards.
Then, the gaping hand inside the jar suddenly grabbed hard, tearing a hole in the yellow cloth.
A thick, almost black gas burst out of the jar in an instant.
As soon as the gas burst out, all the round mirrors in the empty room vibrated with a "clang," and several thin mirrors cracked on the spot.
Zhou Heng was startled by the voice, and a chill ran down his spine. He finally regained some of his senses.
He saw the jar crack open, his eyes narrowed, and he almost blurted out, "It's out!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the thin face in the mouth of the jar slowly turned in a different direction.
It's not about aiming for the ironclad plan.
Instead, they headed towards Lu Yuan.
In that instant, Lu Yuan felt as if a thin sheet of paper had been gently lifted in front of him, revealing that behind it was neither black nor white.
Instead, they are thin lines that crisscross and extend to the farthest distances.
That's the road.
The roads, the borrowed roads, the back roads, the dead roads, and the living roads are all densely intertwined, leading straight into the deeper part of the mountain.
At the end of those countless fine lines, an even larger eye is slowly opening.
Lu Yuan felt a chill run down his spine, realizing that it had already "set its sights" on him.
But he didn't back down.
He merely raised his eyes, coldly meeting his gaze, his voice so low it sounded like it was being ground between clenched teeth: "You see me?"
"Then stop playing tricks and come out."
The moment that thin face turned, Lu Yuan knew that the real opponent was no longer the Iron Abacus, nor this black jar.
That thing in the forum is starting to recognize people.
The faint crackling of the mirror shattering hadn't stopped, but Lu Yuan calmed down instead.
He's not afraid of it seeing him; he's afraid of it not seeing him.
Once a sinister thing truly focuses its attention, it means it's only one step away from "borrowing a body," and it's precisely at this point that one must not act rashly.
His left hand was still pressing down on the copper needle in the crack in the ground, while his right hand slowly rose, his fingertips drawing two lines in the air, and he whispered, "Now that you've accepted the eye, don't hide in the jar and pretend to be dead."
"If you want to see me, I'll show you everything."
As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly took half a step forward.
Iron Abacus's face changed drastically: "Are you crazy?!"
Lu Yuan didn't turn around, but said in a deep voice, "It doesn't dare to really come out now because the jar hasn't been completely broken yet."
"As soon as I step back, it takes the opportunity to pass through your eyes."
"Once I press it down, it can only reveal its true form inside the jar first."
As he spoke, he flipped his fingers and pulled out a tiny folded yellow talisman from his sleeve, then stuck it to his forehead.
As soon as the talisman touched his forehead, his aura suddenly deepened, but his eyes shone even brighter.
It's like temporarily gathering one's own charisma into a single thread, forcefully restraining it, so as not to give the eye in the jar any opening.
"Cheng'an!"
Lu Yuan shouted.
Wang Chengan immediately responded, his voice tense: "Yes, Brother Lu!"
Lu Yuan shouted again, "Scatter all the remaining rice from that basin in front of the jar!"
"Second Little One, get the bowl of salt and lay a line along my feet, making sure it's not broken!"
"Zhou Heng, go kick all the broken pieces of glass against the east wall, don't leave a single one in the middle!"
"Song Qinghe, don't turn off the lamp, shine it on that face!"
The group responded very quickly.
Ignoring the dirt on his hands, Wang Chengan grabbed the remaining rice from the basin and threw it all out in front of the jar.
The rice grains fell to the ground with a series of soft, dense sounds, as if they had landed on an invisible, living shell.
While pressing down the earthenware basin, Xu Erxiao poured salt at Lu Yuan's feet.
This time he didn't hesitate at all, his movements were very steady, and he whispered, "Brother Lu, I've laid out the lines for you."
Lu Yuan gave a short reply, shifted his foot slightly, and stepped onto the inside of the salt line.
Zhou Heng had recovered somewhat by this time. Upon hearing Lu Yuan's instructions, he immediately bent down and kicked away the shards of glass on the ground.
As soon as the lens moved, the remaining fog inside immediately dispersed, as if someone had forcibly torn off several strands of eyeliner.
Song Qinghe gripped the oil lamp tightly, his wrist trembling, yet the light remained fixed on the mouth of the jar.
In the firelight, the face that emerged from the yellow cloth was no longer the blurry figure it had been before, but rather revealed a clearer outline.
His forehead was extremely high, his facial bones were deeply sunken, and the corners of his mouth were split as if they had been torn open with needle and thread.
But a dark light was still flickering in and out of his eye sockets, like two undeveloped eyeballs eagerly trying to pop out.
Iron Abacus stared at that face, almost unable to stand, and managed to squeeze out, "It's half awake—"
Lu Yuan stared at the mouth of the jar, his eyes cold and hard: "It's because it's finally willing to peel back the borrowed skin a little bit."
The face inside the altar seemed to understand these words, and the corners of its mouth slowly turned up.
Then, a very faint voice rose from the bottom of the jar, like someone breathing softly through thick earth: "The Road—"
With just one word, Lu Yuan's heart sank.
It wasn't the sound that was frightening, but rather that this single word carried an inexplicable, strange sense of familiarity.
Like all the roads in the mountains that had been pressed down, borrowed, and offered to, they suddenly turned around and sniffed him.
Wang Cheng'an's face paled, and he almost blurted out, "Brother Lu, is it calling you?"
Lu Yuan said slowly, "It's testing whether I know the way."
Xu Erxiao felt a chill run down his spine upon hearing this, and gritted his teeth, saying, "What if we admit it?"
Lu Yuan didn't answer immediately, but instead focused his gaze on Tie Suanpan.
Iron Abacus tensed up under his gaze, and the composure he had maintained earlier had almost completely vanished. His lips trembled as he said, "Don't look at me, I'm really not someone you can just stare at."
"I'm just guarding it for others—guarding it for others so that it has grown to this day."
Lu Yuan asked, "For whom?"
Iron Abacus's eyes twitched, and he subconsciously looked at the shadow behind the altar.
Lu Yuan followed the light and immediately saw that the shadow was not empty.
There stood a black wooden sign that was about half a person's height.
The card was originally covered by yellow cloth and shadows, making it difficult to see clearly. Now, with the firelight illuminating the corners, the densely engraved details on it became visible.
It is not scripture.
It is a name.
Row upon row, like a bill of lading, are engraved with people's names.
Lu Yuan's eyes suddenly turned cold.
"I see."
"It's not offering sacrifices to gods, it's feeding people with human names."
Iron Abacus was truly panicked this time, his voice hoarse: "Don't touch that card!"
"That's just borrowing a designer brand name; if you mess with it, the whole street underneath will be turned upside down!"
But Lu Yuan didn't even listen to these words. "Even if I don't touch it, it won't let us go."
As Lu Yuan spoke, his right hand slowly reached for the short knife at his waist.
Just then, the face in the jar suddenly moved again.
This time it wasn't a smile, nor was it staring; instead, it was raising a hand very, very slowly.
It was still that same hand with the cracks.
It extends beyond the yellow cloth, its five fingers slightly spread, as if touching some invisible threshold.
Then, the finger slowly turned towards the black wooden plaque.
Zhou Heng gasped: "It's going to call roll!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the top row of words on the black wooden plaque actually made a "tap" sound, as if it had been gently tapped by something.
The first name caught my eye.
The moment that name appeared, Lu Yuan felt a sudden tightness in his chest, as if a thin thread was being pulled from afar.
He immediately realized that the sign was not a list of dead people, nor was it a simple register of offerings.
This is the root register for roll call during the journey.
Whoever's name is highlighted by it will be the first to be "seen" by it.
After "seeing," one borrows a body, eyes, and life.
Wang Cheng'an had obviously thought of this as well, and his face turned pale. He quickly looked at Lu Yuan's reaction: "Brother Lu, what should we do?"
Lu Yuan didn't back down. Instead, he said in a deep voice, "Second Brother, add another layer of salt."
"Cheng'an, take out that packet of cinnabar."
"Zhou Heng, stop focusing on the name. Go dig up the soil in front of that black wooden plaque and see what's buried underneath."
Zhou Heng was taken aback: "What?!"
Lu Yuan's tone was not harsh, but it left no room for argument: "The fact that it specifically named someone means that it has connections below."
"Once the roots are dug out, it's not so easy to find the person by the name."
Zhou Heng gritted his teeth, immediately squatted down, and used a piece of broken wood to dig into the soil in front of the black wooden sign.
As soon as the soil loosened, a section of blackened hemp rope was revealed underneath.
The hemp rope was extremely thin and tightly wound, running down the base of the sign like a vein buried in the soil.
"This is... the Name-Binding Rope?"
Zhou Heng exclaimed in disbelief.
Iron Abacus's face turned completely ashen, as if his secret had been exposed: "We can't let it go!"
"That's the root of the locking jar; once it's severed, the 'eye bed' underneath will truly open!"
Lu Yuan glanced at him, his gaze like a knife: "It's too late for you to say it can't be broken up now."
As soon as he finished speaking, he drew his short knife and stabbed the rope with it.
With a "hiss," the hemp rope tightened, but instead of breaking immediately, it made a slight trembling sound, as if it were being forced by a blade.
At the same time, the face inside the jar twitched suddenly, and a low whimper came from under the yellow cloth, as if something enormous was turning over underneath.
The entire underground chamber trembled slightly.
Song Qinghe nearly tilted the oil lamp in her hand. She quickly steadied it, her voice strained, "It's moving!"
Lu Yuan stared at the piece of hemp rope, his eyes growing even colder: "It's getting desperate."
He applied more force to his hand, and the short knife spun violently.
The rope finally snapped with a "snap".
The moment the plaque was disconnected, almost all the names on it went dark at the same time.
Immediately afterwards, the cracked hand on the jar's mouth suddenly pushed outwards, as if trying to use the shock to climb directly out of the jar.
The black light on the thin face inside the jar suddenly blazed brightly.
In that instant, Lu Yuan heard an extremely soft, very close voice, almost touching his ear: "You're famous too."